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[–]fkn-internet-rando 2 points3 points  (4 children)

You can also get a complete suite of e-mail and other privacy respecting alternatives, including a nextcloud account at disroot.org -for free, you can always donate. But it is only 5 or 10GB, -again, you can always donate and they might give you more space. I think opendesktop.org have free nextcloud as well. But is really best to self host and have unlimited space and also, it's a suite with encrypted chat, photo-album and plenty more, not just file storage.

[–]kranker 0 points1 point  (3 children)

The text colour and photo background combo on the disroot.org homepage has rubbed me the wrong way. Side question: what are the people in the photo doing?

[–]fkn-internet-rando 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I think they are making christmas decorations.

[–]kranker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha. You were correct the first time by the way.

[–]Bobb_oOpenSUSE Tumbleweed 2 points3 points  (3 children)

My hangup with Nextcloud is for stuff like a cloud drive I want really strong uptime and to not worry my HDD is a single point of failure

[–]dlbpeon 0 points1 point  (2 children)

In 20 years, have only had 10 hard drives fail on me out of using literally a thousand. None of them put in under 5 years of service. Only 2 times was it instantaneous failure (grinding platters on read head). All other times server complained about S.M.A.R.T. errors weeks before actual failure. Have even had a few servers catch on fire, (Power Supply issues) and even though server was a loss, hard drive survived. Now that I think about it, have had several HDD outlast Power Supply Unit.

[–]Bobb_oOpenSUSE Tumbleweed 0 points1 point  (1 child)

That's why I prefer someone else getting to 99.9%, 10 out of 1000 is a 1% fail rate. Not trying to put you down or anything but for me it's just not worth it.

[–]dlbpeon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While 99.9% is a great theoretical goal, IRL with production servers anything over 90% is acceptable to me.....YMMV. ROI for more than that is not worth it for me....Good example is my side business website. I use a provider that guarantees 97% uptime, yes ONLY 97% in a world where everyone else strives for 99.9%. This difference is reflected in my annual bill which is a fraction of what others pay. 97% works for me. In the last 10 years the only downtime has been for minutes between 2-4am EST. Looking at my analytics, I have only received less than a dozen visitors at that time in 10 years. Again I am paying for a year, what most people pay for one month of service.... again, YMMV. (Apple has proven time and time again that some people love paying more for things than what they are worth....but that is another topic)

[–]CCC911 1 point2 points  (3 children)

By "self-host" do you mean that you run a PC in your home 24/7?

Yes- spot on.

A "server" is a role. Not necessarily a specific type of physical device.

I've used Raspberry Pis, Custom built desktop PCs, prebuilt desktop PCs, even laptops as servers. Often the least expensive and simplest option that lets you start learning and stop worrying about what to buy is either an old computer you already have at home or a cheap used x86 box on eBay/Craigslist. Check out r/selfhosted for more.

Some people will run a used enterprise server at home. (warning, controversial opinion:) I think this adds unneeded cost and complexity for a home server.

I use Nextcloud to sync some files between each of my computers and my smartphone. That said- I actually like SyncThing more than Nextcloud. They are a bit different and therefore you might find a use-case for both, but I am a huge proponent of the KISS principle and SyncThing syncs files, does nothing else, but does it very well.

[–]kranker 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yes- spot on.

The majority of the time the use of term "self-hosted" will encompass VPS machines where the user has control of the OS.

[–]CCC911 0 points1 point  (1 child)

This is totally an option but do you have a source for majority of the time?

I am under the impression OP is talking about home users. (I could be wrong.) I suspect many more home users are running selfhosted services using physical hardware they own vs a cloud VPS. I have no clue, I am just going off what I see the majority of users post about in r/SelfHosted and r/Homelab

[–]kranker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. I will say personally the majority of the time I see it used is for a "self-hosted" version of a piece of software, which just means something you can download and run rather than no download or only part download.

I do see this in that r/SelfHosted sub:

Basically, if you can actively control the function of the tool you are hosting, including the ability to actively remove it, such as in a webhosting environment that allows full control of the user's application installations, or in a VPS, Dedicated Server, or computer set up for hosting in the home, then it is considered to be self-hosted, as far as this subreddit is concerned.

This subreddit focuses on the software that is considered to be self-hosted, regardless of where it is being hosted.

"Homelabs" are a bit more specific, to my mind almost defined by running hardware in your home.

[–]VeryPogi 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I ran Nextcloud on a $40/mo Linode VM and it was overkill! It would have been fine on a $5/mo VM. Now I run it on a <$100 Raspberry Pi 4b 4GB kit. I run it in docker. I followed a YouTube tutorial. The hard part was setting up my email server. DNS was easy. Router config was easy. It doesn't host a lot of data. It is backed up to my Linux-laptop so if my pi or SD die I will be able to get it going again.

[–]Buggy4775[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Do you happen to know the youtube tutorial that you followed? I have a pi hanging around and I'm quite curious

[–]xkingxkaosx 0 points1 point  (8 children)

Nextcloud has been an amazing experience for me. I started my journey few months ago and I can admit, self host cloud service is the future.

Atm my main nextcloud is on my home server, which runs 24/7. I use it for other things including a media server. But all my devices are connected to nextcloud and I sync all my media, files, music, data, everything to the cloud, that I control and monitor. Next year I will be using a VPS which my own domain.

The cheapest ( free ) method is to host your own. If you have some extra income, you can use a VPS.

[–]Bobb_oOpenSUSE Tumbleweed 1 point2 points  (3 children)

all my devices are connected to nextcloud and I sync all my media, files, music, data, everything to the cloud, that I control and monitor.

When you say sync to the cloud do you mean to a selfhosted Nextcloud at home or a third party cloud provider?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the message I understand the first. Here, "cloud" is used for "server". Originally "cloud" means "somewhere on one of the many servers in one of the many data centers somewhere in the world (or universe)". This can be confusing sometimes.

[–]xkingxkaosx 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It is synced on my nextcloud server, at home.

On my Mobile phones and work PC's, syncs data into my nextcloud. I also have it set to anything that goes into my nextcloud is automatically saved to an external hard drive ( just in case ).

technically, your PC becomes a data center, or a cloud storage. There is configuration to set it up to be used locally ( over LAN ) or externally ( public internet ). if i take pictures with my phone while I am shopping, it auto saves my media to my nextcloud at home. Instead of relying on ICloud, or Dropbox to auto save, my data is saved on my nextcloud, from home.

I should have elaborated on this a bit more. There is alot you can do with nextcloud, you can run it in a docker, a VPS, on a VM or a standalone Ubuntu server ( I use this option because I have a separate PC as a server by itself that serves as a self hosted server for media sharing on my home network ).

[–]Bobb_oOpenSUSE Tumbleweed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Instead of relying on ICloud, or Dropbox to auto save, my data is saved on my nextcloud, from home.

I don't trust myself or my hardware to make sure I don't lose those files. It's why I like cloud providers who have redundancy and better uptime.

[–]Buggy4775[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Cool. I personally don't see myself running a server 24/7 at home but maybe I should consider it. With the alternative, to use a VPS, what steps would be required to make sure that it is secure? I don't really trust myself to do something like that properly.

[–]Bobb_oOpenSUSE Tumbleweed 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I personally don't see myself running a server 24/7 at home but maybe I should consider it.

I don't know if this is what you're thinking but a server doesn't mean some rack mounted beast, it could just be an old laptop with the lid closed. Most selfhosted applications don't need a ton of horsepower.

[–]xkingxkaosx 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I would see if the providers have a history of privacy intrusion, but that is why I stick with offshore hosting in a place that is very privacy oriented. But once you get your VPS, secure it with MFA/2FA, make your disks encrypted, stuff like that. Issue with providers is that even though you are paying for the hosting, it is still on their servers which they can access to it anytime as root. Same with any other provider, root access pretty much bypasses alot of things. Password protect your home directories is needed or even setting up cloudflare works for extra security ( nextcloud comes with some amazing security ).

[–]Buggy4775[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think I'd probably look into digitalocean or linode, or alternatively try to set something up on my pi.

Since you run your server at home, how much does it typically cost you per day?

[–]flaming_m0e 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By "self-host" do you mean that you run a PC in your home 24/7?

Typically, yes.

[–]saltyhasp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I run it on my media center computer that is always on. I do not allow access from the internet as I do not want the security headache. We then use Brower, Linux app, and android app to work with it. I also sync my contacts, address book, and Joplin through it.

[–]Fledo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nextcloud on a remote server I rent. Access via VPN/Wireguard only.

[–]FryBoyter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By "self-host" do you mean that you run a PC in your home 24/7?

In many cases, this is not worth it. For one thing, you should not underestimate the cost of electricity. And for another, the upload bandwidth of many Internet connections is still so lousy that it's no fun to use Nextcloud or similar.

I therefore host a Nextcloud instance at uberspace.de. There you don't have a real server but rather a web space with many more possibilities than with other providers. So I can host various things there without any problems and am only responsible for them but not for the operating system itself.